Sotah 25b (כה:) — the Talmud in English

And Beit Hillel hold: A document that stands to be collected is not considered as though it has already been collected.

Thus, the woman is not considered to be in possession of the assets securing the ketuba; rather, she is the claimant against the heirs, and she must bring proof that she did not commit adultery. Until then, she does not collect her ketuba, since a doubt cannot dislodge a certainty.

We learned in the Mishna:

the pregnant widow of another man,

an ailonit, an elderly woman, and one who is incapable of bearing children do not collect their ketuba and do not drink.

Rabbi Eliezer says: He can marry another woman and have children through her.

Rav Naḥman said that Rabba bar Avuha said: The dispute

between Rabbi Eliezer and the Sages is only

with regard to a barren woman

who became barren as a result of an injury,

and an elderly woman,

for whom the entire rationale of the Sages—that she does not drink—is that it is prohibited for a man who has no children to marry them, and they therefore fall into the category of women whom he is not fit to keep as wives. Rabbi Eliezer disputes this, since he can keep her by marrying another woman.

But with regard to an ailonit, everyone agrees that she does not drink and does not collect her ketuba

because there is an additional reason to exclude her,

as it is stated: “

And she shall be cleared, and she shall conceive seed.”

And we interpret this to mean that only

one whose way it is to conceive

drinks;

this one,

the ailonit,

whose way it is not to conceive,

as she is incapable of becoming pregnant, does not drink. [But a barren woman and an elderly woman, who were originally capable of bearing children, are considered capable of becoming pregnant; an ailonit, however, is congenitally defective.]

They raised an objection

from the following baraita:

One who warns his betrothed or his shomeret yavam, if she secluded herself before he married her, she does not drink and does not collect her ketuba.